Shooting in the New Year
by Kat Lee formerly Pirate Turner
Summary: There's one time of the year when everybody likes to hear guns being fired in Four Corners.  Het.  Mild Slash.


Title: "Shooting in the New Year"  
>Author: Pirate Turner<br>Rating: G  
>Summary: There's one time of the year when everybody likes to hear guns being fired in Four Corners.<br>Warnings: OW, Het, Mild Slash  
>Word Count: 1,324<br>Date Written: 1 January, 2012  
>Disclaimer: Buck Wilmington, JD Dunne, Ezra Standish, Chris Larabee, Vin Tanner, Nathan Jackson, Josiah Sanchez, Mary and Billy Travis, Inez Recillos, all other characters mentioned within, and The Magnificent Seven are ﾩ &amp; TM CBS, The Mirisch Group, MGM, and Trilogy Entertainment, not the author. Everything else is ﾩ &amp; TM the author. The author makes absolutely no profit off of this work of fan fiction, and no copyright infringement is intended.<p>

There was one time of the year when Mary Travis actually looked forward to the sound of gunshots ringing through the still air of her small town. She held Billy nestled in her arms and rocked softly on her front porch as she waited to hear that sound again this year. The moon was high, and she knew the time must be drawing nigh.

She listened to the soft rise and fall of her son's breath and remembered another time that, while not too long ago, seemed almost like another lifetime. There had been a time when her beloved husband, Billy's father, would have been preparing his gun right now to join in the festivities. She might have even helped him clean his gun in preparation, and things certainly would not be as quiet as they were now. The air would have been filled with jubilant laughter and her husband's charming voice. Mary's eyes started to drift close. She could almost hear him now, speaking to her, laughing with her, telling her all the good things the new year would bring to them . . .

Mary's head drooped; her chin came to rest against the top of Billy's blonde head. Her rocking ceased, and her eyes closed. Then, suddenly, the air exploded with gunshots. Her blue eyes snapped open again, and she smiled. Billy was also jerking awake, and she hugged tightly to him as they listened to their friends and protectors greeting the new year in the traditional, Western style. "It's happening!" Billy cried excitedly.

Mary kissed his head and went back to rocking. "Happy New Year, Billy," she told him as they listened to the gunshots filling the atmosphere.

Across town, Inez smiled where she leaned out of her doorway. She absent mindedly swiped at the wooden frame with her dust rag before whirling back around to face the few customers who still remained. She didn't like staying open this late for business, but the men who had stayed with her tonight had had nowhere else to go. Their families were either dead or otherwise gone, and they were all they had left. Inez's heart had went out to them, and she'd not chased them away until just now.

"Happy New Year, senors! Now, please pay up and let's go home." None of her patrons pointed out to her that she was already home. They were just grateful to have her as a friend with a bright smile and warm countenance with whom to stay to greet the new year. Inez's tips were heavy that night, but her heart was as light as the coins being dropped into her jug were heavy.

Many gunshots had filled the air, but she'd still been able to pick through them to determine which one signaled a derringer being fired. She hadn't told a soul, but these men who had nowhere else to go had reminded her of the first man about whom she'd come to care who had thought he had no friends and was alone. Ezra had promised her he'd come by first thing in the light of the new year, and Inez had a picnic to prepare.

She couldn't wait to see him again. She would have liked to have rung in the new year in his arms, but she understood his need to be with his family and was glad he'd finally accepted the other six as his true family. She knew all too well how cruel his blood family had been to him, but Inez knew also that the truest family is not the one a person is born into but rather the one in which a person's heart is truly connected.

She was glad Ezra had his family now and they were spending New Year's Eve together shooting up the sky, but as happy as she was for him, Inez still hoped with all her heart that next year would find her ringing in the new year with her beloved and his friends. She grinned. If they gave her that opportunity, she'd cook them a feast they'd never forget and be a shoe in every year thereafter.

She paused once more on the boardwalk as she saw her customers off for the night. She felt other eyes watching the town and turned to see Mrs. Potts looking out from in front of her shop as well. Inez smiled and waved. "Happy New Year, Senora Potts!"

"Happy New Year, Inez!" Mrs. Potts called and then turned to return to her little room just beyond her shop. Inez slipped back into her home, as well, her heart and soul lighter this new year than it had been at the start of any year for a very long time indeed. Smiling and beginning to whistle a merry tune, Inez thought again of her beloved Ezra and his family and trusted that they were ringing in the new year just as happily.

Ezra smiled, his gold tooth gleaming in the darkness, as he watched his friends rejoicing. Some of the local farmers were still shooting their guns in answer to their firing to greet the new year. He closed his pocket watch and slipped it back into his jacket. Between his, Nathan's, and Buck's watches, they had been well prepared to know exactly when the final second of the last year ebbed away and the new year originally began.

Laughter filled the air. Ezra's smile slowly grew to fill his handsome face as he watched his friends with a heart that was warmer and more loved than he could ever remember being before. Buck swung JD around again before bringing the Kid back down to his mouth. JD's bowler hat had fallen off of his head and was collecting dust again, but for a change, the Kid seemed to neither care nor notice as he kissed Buck passionately. Chris and Vin were still kissing. Even their horses seemed to be having a jolly time while playing some kind of tag game out in the fields.

Nathan's dark eyes caught Ezra's emerald gaze, and the healer smiled broadly at him just as Josiah clasped his shoulder. "Happy New Year, Brother Ezra," Josiah's deep voice rumbled.

Nathan nodded. "Happy New Year, Ez. Let's make this the best one yet and get started out on the right foot."

"May the new year be full of good health, good drink and eating, family, and love for us all."

"Indeed," Ezra agreed with a bob of his head.

"And a healthy dose of safety and good luck wouldn't hurt," Nathan interjected. He grinned at Ezra who he'd come to stand directly before. "Or don't you believe in luck, gambler?" he questioned, but before Ezra could answer, he found himself being hugged from both ends. Josiah's broad and strong arms wrapped reassuringly around him from behind while Nathan tackled him a tad more hesitantly in the front.

Ezra went stiff at first, and then slowly he began hugging his brothers back. He had to have good luck, he acknowledged, for otherwise he'd never have found his heart's family at last. "Ah do," he answered after a bit, "but Ah don't believe we'll need good luck to have a good year."

"No?" Vin asked, grinning. He and the others had paused their merriment when they'd spotted Josiah and Nathan grabbing and hugging their elusive partner.

Ezra shook his head and, freed at last from the cohorts who had grabbed him, lifted his drink. "Ah believe all we will need is each other," he stated, and though his smile was warm and golden, he dared not yet look his friends in their eyes as he spoke. Even now, a part of him feared being turned away by them.

"We'll all drink to that," Chris announced.

"Yup," Vin drawled in agreement.

The seven tossed their drinks down. Then, before Ezra knew what was happening, they surrounded him again and hugged him right into the new year.

**The End**


End file.
